Runaways
by dragonofeternal
Summary: Snapshots and moments of Judal and Hakuryuu escaping on the road, where time is measured in shitty roadside attractions and trusting someone you hate is the best way out.
1. Counting Time in Mystery Spots

It's not until four AM, when they're eating breakfast at a diner just off the highway in Bumfuck, Nowhere, that the gravity of what's been done sinks in. The whole place smells like breakfast, as though bacon grease and butter were used in lieu of mortar to brick the building.

"Oh my god," Hakuryuu says, head in his hands, "oh my god. I'm so stupid. Crazy even." He fists his hands in his hair, hoping the sting will ground him.

It does not.

"Yeah, you're pretty much both." Judal drains his coffee and wanders off to the counter to weasel more out of the pretty young waitress. Hakuryuu's pretty sure she likes him. It probably has something to do with his unseasonably revealing belly shirt and his six pack abs, and Hakuryuu wants to tell her he's not worth the trouble. Judal returns a cup of coffee richer though, with a slice of chocolate silk pie to boot. "You done your little freak out?" Judal plunks both prizes down on the table.

Hakuryuu lifts his head out of his hands to glare at Judal. "I better not be paying for any of that."

Judal gives him the cheekiest smirk in return, as though Hakuryuu's glare is just as much a reward as the pie. "These? Hell no. I never pay for things, I just get people to like me enough to give it to me for free!"

On the list of things Hakuryuu will never do for Judal, 'like him' is probably number two, beaten out for the top spot only by the even worse idea of trusting him. Number three would probably be something like 'loan him money,' but as he surveys the table, Hakuryuu realizes that he may have already made that mistake.

"So how far do you intend for us to travel together?" He takes a sip of his own cup of coffee. Judal hmmms into his pie, making of show of considering the question, and Hakuryuu can almost feel his blood pressure rising. "Just answer the damn question, don't pretend like you need to think about it."

"A while," Judal finally answers. "I can't drive, so I need you to get me further away."

Hakuryuu massages his temples with his off hand. "You are a supremely powerful being of pure magic but, fine. Fine. You want to play at being an incompetent loon, fine."

Judal tips his coffee to Hakuryuu. "I'm playing the nonmagical loon who doesn't get tracked by Al Tharman. If I go flying off on my own, they're gonna find me in no time."

"And if you stay with me, then we're both going to get caught." Hakuryuu can tell though; Judal isn't budging. He takes a bite more of his food, and it tastes of greasy ash in his mouth. "But I suppose, for now, you can stay here."

Judal smiles and sips at his coffee like a cat enjoying a fat canary. "Much obliged."

* * *

Hakuryuu had planned leaving so well. He had escape routes and drop points for all his essential vitals. He took every necessary precaution to make sure he was never found out. He had money and supplies and a car that he'd bought with cash from a used lot and registered under a false name.

It had been his secret.

And yet somehow it had all gone to pot, it had all been found out, because after he ditched the car his mother had bought him for his sixteenth birthday and hiked for two days to get to the new car that he'd bought with cash and parked in a national park, he found Judal sunning on the hood with a grin on his face.

"Mind if I tag along?"

Where had everything gone wrong? Who knew other than Judal?

How long until his mother catches him?

* * *

Judal can sleep in the car or not, it doesn't make much difference to him. But Judal also doesn't know how to drive, not well at least, and so it falls on Hakuryuu's moods to decide when they stop. The diner revitalizes him enough to drive until the moon's silvery light fades and the early pale of morning casts a different filter over the endless stretch of highway. Judal brought a book on tape with him, and Hakuryuu's surprised that he doesn't completely hate it.

It's some trashy fantasy book, with swashbuckling heroes and young assassins and wicked wizards, and the narrator sells it with gusto usually reserved for campfire stories. It's surprisingly engaging, but even better than the story is the way it shuts Judal up. Hakuryuu's not sure he's seen him that quiet in years, not since they were both little kids and Judal would sneak away from religious studies to raid the pantry for snacks.

Dawn turns to day, and then it's the sun that keeps Hakuryuu awake, almost blinding in its harshness as the road opens up to endless fields of grain and corn. Judal dozes, but Hakuryuu still drives. The narrator on the radio hisses through his teeth about a narrow escape from a wicked cult of wizards, his voice rising as the heroes run, certain they'll be caught, their blades drawn, ready for the moment their pursuers catch up. Hakuryuu grips the steering wheel. The cult they flee is relentless. Omnipresent. Hakuryuu bites his lower lip. The heroes can run, they do run, and maybe they'll escape, but the confrontation can't be avoided forever, they can't run, he can't run-

Hakuryuu punches the radio off, and the silence jolts Judal awake.

"Hey, I was listening to that!"

* * *

Hakuryuu stops at five o'clock on the dot to try and catch a quick dinner so he can cram in more driving, but by the time his food arrives, he can barely keep his eyes open. Judal chats up their cashier for directions to a no-tell motel, but Hakuryuu's not so tired as to hand the keys over. He waits in the car, almost asleep, as Judal goes in to give a fake name and a wad of cash to the desk agent. He returns triumphant with a set of keys and drags Hakuryuu to his feet, full of all the enthusiasm that only an incredibly manic man lording his restfulness over an exhausted compatriot has.

Hakuryuu accepts the hand up and stumbles after him to their room, asleep before he even hits the pillow.

* * *

Time is a funny thing on long trips.

You don't measure it in hours or minutes after the first day, not really. And measuring in days seems insufficient, too. And so, it becomes measured in other things. Chapters of an audiobook saga you're beginning to suspect may never end. Cars you pass with Canadian license plates. Pennsylvanian towns with bizarrely sexual names.

Judal, however, seems to have decided they should measure time in tourist traps.

"How about this one," he asks, shoving an off brand smart phone with a by the minute plan in Hakuryuu's face. Hakuryuu's eyes, fixed on the road as they are, understand little of it, and must rely on Judal's explanation when he pulls the phone back to grin at it. "Gravity Hill. I saw the brochure at that last gas station. It's a warp in reality where your car will roll uphill! And at the top of the hill, well, that's where things getreally weird-"

"You are, quite honestly, one of the most gullible men I've ever met." Hakuryuu means it honestly.

And Judal's shit-eating grin back is just as honest. "Well, if I can do shit like cause an ice storm in the height of summer and fly through the air, why should I doubt that there's a hill cars can roll up?"

Hakuryuu doesn't want to see another mystery spot, or another giant ball of yarn, but he already knows how this ends. "Where is it?"

Judal's grin turns triumphant. "Take the next exit and then stay left at the fork. There should be signs."

And there were- signs that lead them away from the highway, past an almost haunted-looking gas station, to Mystery Spot #2 of their trip, Roadside Attraction #3. Signs which, when they reach their destination, order Hakuryuu to put his car in neutral and to allow the supernatural reversing of gravity to drag his car up the hill.

For those who don't know, Gravity Hills are real in a sense, and that sense being that if you put your car in neutral, it will roll uphill. They are full of shit, however, in the sense that the sensation of rolling uphill is an optical illusion, caused by rolling hills and mountains that break up the sense of which way is truly up. Your car may go "uphill," but only in the sense that it is truly going downhill in the truest sense of things.

Judal loved it.

When they reach the top, there is a small shack that promises further wonders: live jackalopes, brooms that stand on end, rooms that cause people to shrink or grow. It's a veritable wonderland of touristy, illusionist garbage. Hakuryuu cuts in before Judal can even open his mouth. "No."

Judal frowns. "Fiiine!" And yet even that can't dampen his spirits, and he's grinning again before they even reach the highway.

* * *

It would be nice if life was as clearly labeled as tourist traps. Hakuryuu follows signs for highways and roads, signs that lead him to gas stations and cheap hotels and a parade of cheap diners both good and bad, but there aren't signs that tell him exactly where to run. There are no road signs to safe houses from his mother.

Judal charts their course, strange as it would have seemed the night they set out. His path of roadside oddities zig zags like a man drunkenly running from an crocodile. Hakuryuu trusts that no one in Al Tharman will be mad enough to figure out where Judal will take them next, since Judal barely seems mad enough to know himself.

They lay awake one night in a park-and-ride, seats leaned back as far as they can go, and trace their route so far on a map with their fingers.

"So," Judal laughs, "when do I get kicked off?"

"You're useful," Hakuryuu rebuts, "for now. I highly doubt Al Tharman will find me with the mess of a path you're charting."

Judal smiles at that, because he can tell Hakuryuu means it, and there is little feeling better than that of being useful. "Of course they won't."

Hakuryuu's fingers find Judal's in the dark. There's something crossed there, some line that had been dividing them smudged out. Hakuryuu's not sure what he feels.

Judal's fingers squeeze back.

* * *

Strawberry picking isn't a roadside attraction, but they stop for it anyway, riding a haywagon away from their car and out into the fields, tramping down lines of plants to find the ripest, most perfect berries. Hakuryuu's scandalized when Judal eats one right off the vine.

"You are going to get us thrown out."

"Am not," Judal protests, his strawberry-stained smile catching him red-handed. He shoves another into his mouth. "Besides, we're still gonna buy some. What's it matter?"

Hakuryuu can barely process his horror. "It's against the rules. They can't properly charge us for what you've eaten. And you have no way to wash your mouth out, they'll know you've been stealing them!"

Stealing hangs in the air between them, pauses Judal's hand as he's about to shove another berry into his mouth, and for a moment Hakuryuu thinks he's won. However, on the list of things Judal would never do for Hakuryuu, let him have the last laugh was definitely in the top ten.

Judal pops the berry into his mouth and then rubs his sticky, juice-stained fingers over Hakuryuu's lips. "There," he says through a mouthful of berry. "Now we both look like thieves."

Hakuryuu stares in horror, frozen by the brazenness of the action, the softness of Judal's fingers, and then overwhelming urge to beat the ever loving shit out of Judal. His mouth slowly works, and he raises a hand to his lips to feel the stickiness there.

Then he takes that hand and uses it to punch Judal right in his smug grinning face.

Judal sprawls, foot snagging in the strawberries and sending him to the ground. Hakuryuu leaps after him, to punch or to yank at his hair, but Judal catches his throat in his hands with his longer arms and pulls his knees up to keep Hakuryuu from landing on him fully. They tossle in the mud and plants, crushing berries and plants beneath them.

"Hey! What are you kids doing?!"

They jolt apart, look up to see someone coming. Someone with authority. Someone a good head taller than Judal. They look at each other, and back at the man, and they run, basket of strawberries in hand, across the fields and back to the parking lot, Judal's wind magic pushing them faster, nearly putting wings on their feet. Hakuryuu scrambles the car open, and Judal hops inside after him with their stolen berries.

"Go, go, go!"

"You don't have to tell me what to do," Hakuryuu shouts back as he fumbles the keys into the ignition and guns them from the parking lot.

Judal falls backwards into his seat and laughs himself hoarse once he's sure they've escaped. "There's no way I could have eaten as many berries as we just crushed."

"Shut up, Judal," Hakuryuu snaps back, but he glances over with a little smile on his face. "Besides, I would never underestimate how much stolen fruit you can eat, because I believe in you."

* * *

Motel beds are a crapshoot. They can be surprisingly soft oases, making a life in a car seem almost livable; they can be horrifying, bug ridden cesspools still soaked with the fluids of their last occupant that make you want to flay your skin off just to be clean again; but most often they are disappointingly adequate, with something unignorably off but still survivable enough to serve their basic purpose.

This one is fine, other than one suspect stain, but the inner blanket feels simultaneously slimy and itchy. Judal kicks it away, not wanting to feel it on his skin as he gropes ineffectively at Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu gropes back though, pulling Judal close, and their mouths meet in the middle in an uncomfortable clack of teeth.

"Fucking-" Judal starts to swear, but Hakuryuu tilts his head, corrects the kiss. It's better this time, if a bit moist. "Ah, yeah."

"Yeah?" Hakuryuu repeats, his voice breathy with excitement.

Judal feels stupid as he grins back. "Yeah." He reaches down and grabs a handful of Hakuryuu's crotch, trying to knead it in his hand. "How about that? Yeah?"

Hakuryuu makes a choked squeak. "No!"

* * *

Six mystery spots in is when Judal finally breaks the law while Hakuryuu is looking. There may have been earlier times, but Hakuryuu didn't see them. That means they aren't real. It's like Schrodinger's Cat: it's only real if you can observe it.

The strawberry field doesn't count, Hakuryuu insists to himself, it doesn't count. They didn't have a choice, they just panicked. It was an innocent mistake. Not a crime.

Hakuryuu slaps Judal's hand when he goes to lift a stuffed rabbit with Shope Papilloma horns sprouting from its face.

"Don't," Hakuryuu warns.

Judal considers it for a moment, and then gently touches the stuffed rabbit. It flickers under his touch, in and out as if deciding whether to exist or not. It settles on not, and the display is empty. Judal gives a ha-ing grin.

"Judal!" Hakuryuu hisses back.

"We'll want him later, I promise." Judal glances around. "Nothing else real in this dump, anyway. Shall we move on?"

* * *

There is no home waiting at the end of the road. They don't have one anymore. Not a house with bricks and stones, not a place to lay their heads at the end of a long journey. There are no people waiting for them at the end of the road.

"Quit being dramatic, Hakuryuu," Judal groans, kicking his feet up on the dashboard to glare at the traffic snarl they've been stuck in for the last three hours. "We've got plenty of people waiting for us." He snickers. "Waiting for us to fuck this up that is! And then we can get dragged back home to Mother Dear to be punished like the bad little boys we are."

"You're not helping," Hakuryuu grumbles, scrubbing his face with his hands. The gradual creep of traffic has finally brought them close enough to see the cause: a flipped over Winnebago, which rolled itself apart like a cheap tin can across the highway, insulation and metal and formica furnishings strewn across all three lanes and the median. Neither of them comment on the horror of it, and how the absolute devastation of the motorhome makes it pretty clear that anyone who was in it is dead now. "I know she's looking for us. And waiting. That isn't home."

Judal shrugs, sinking more into his seat. Realizing any gory details have already been cleared away, he's lost interest in the wreck. "Guess this car's all the home we've got then. Let's hope it goes better for us than for the poor bastards in that fuckin' RV. Hah! Losers."

* * *

"You probably shouldn't have let me come along," Judal says one night when he's sure Hakuryuu is asleep. They're words that he knows Hakuryuu knows, things they both know to be true in their heart of hearts. "Your mom would have waited for you to just come back, but me? Hah, she'll chase me down. I'm useful, in her eyes. And she doesn't like to give stuff up." His hands feel empty, he feels empty, and so he flexes his fingers, calls the taxidermied "jackalope" from the trunk so he can hold it.

Judal stares down at his stolen stuffed rabbit and feels the magic pulsing around it, feels the realness of it. Just like the Velveteen Rabbit was made flesh by belief, this thing practically pulses with people's hopes and superstitions, their desperate need for things that aren't mundane to be real. It's a useless thing on its own. But here, in his hands?

The rabbit is a deep, dark pool, filled with a magic just waiting to be called on.

"She'll come for me, Hakuryuu. She'll come for me, eventually. But I…." He grips the rabbit tighter, the pulse of its power the only thing grounding his thoughts. "I hope I'll be ready."


	2. Rainstorms and Road Signs

The road shimmers, a heatwave mirage on the horizon where the blue of the sky bleeds into the road so there is no end. The road becomes the infinite sky and the fluffy white clouds above, because heat has turned the asphalt into a mirror. If this were a fairy tale, their car would just drive up to that patch and then on into the sky above, and they would be free of all the things that lay behind them.

The air in the car is hot and wet, like trying to breathe underwater in the tropics. Judal hangs his head from the window like a dog, and Hakuryuu's shirt sits unbuttoned all the way down to his chest, sleeves rolled back as far as they'll go. The A/C broke about a half a day ago, and the cost of repairing it is sounding less and less heavy the longer they spend in it.

"Least there's no traffic," Judal says, pulling his head back into the car.

"Yes, but there will be." Hakuryuu wipes his brow with the back of his arm. "At some point. There's always traffic."

Judal shrugs and turns to watch the road pass by. Save for his occasionally allowable roadside attractions, they've stuck largely to major highways and thoroughfares, and the endless stretch of road is starting to drive him mad. He wonders if Hakuryuu feels the same. Up on the mountains, dark storm clouds are rolling in, but it doesn't look like they'll reach the humid, oppressively hot highway.

"We should drive up there," Judal says, pointing. "Bet between the mountains and the rain it'll be a hell of a lot cooler."

Hakuryuu opens his mouth to object, but a single glance at the impenetrable blackness of the clouds over the mountain changes his mind. Judal sees many things pass through his eyes in that instant- fear, relief, acceptance- and they all add up to listening to Judal's idea. They turn off into a small town and, after a brief stop for gas, turn onto an old piece of the highway system that leads up into the mountains.

* * *

The country is vast, but it's not until you get of the main highways and fill in the blanks between those roads that you realize just how vast it really is. Inspired by the World War II efficiency of the German autobahn and fueled by cold war paranoia, the US's Interstate Highway System, established in the mid fifties, was largely made to get armed vehicles across the country in expedient manner in case of an armed invasion. It's got long, wide stretches of road: perfect for efficiency, not always the best for exciting sights.

Route 30 is older than that- a piece of the United States Numbered Highway system commissioned thirty years earlier than the interstates that is itself largely the reborn from the old Lincoln Highway, one of the first to be built in America. These numbered highways, and the Lincoln Highway that 30 was born from, were built with a different purpose in mind: to connect as many towns and people as possible. They're from an older time, many only one lane wide on either side, and tend to run straight through the main thoroughfares of the cities and towns they pass through. This means winding paths, occasionally slow stretches, and, most importantly, something other than the endless tan-grey of the interstate to look at.

* * *

"Oh, shit, Hakuryuu! Hakuryuu, I just remembered," Judal says, flapping his hand and staring at a crumpled brochure. "Past that last rest stop, before we turned off, there was a billboard for a gravity hill!"

Hakuryuu laughs and rolls his eyes. "Oh, I see what this is really about." He punches Judal in the shoulder without looking away from the road, and out of the corner of his eye he sees Judal recoil with comic overreaction, clutching at his arm. "You just wanted to trick me to another one of your hokey roadside attractions. Is a crazy codger in a tin hat going to try to sell me a poorly taxidermied rabbit paw at this one too?"

"I sure hope so!" Judal cackles, kicking his feet up on the dash board. "I mean they shelled out for a billboard and tourism brochures, so it must be a pretty impressively commercialized one."

"Joy."

Now it's Judal's turn to punch Hakuryuu. "Come on, admit it, you're starting to dig this crap as much as I do!" He glances at the brochure. "Apparently when we hit 'Schellsburg' we're gonna turn up onto Route 96 and then after that take 'the only traffic light in New Paris.' Hah, look at that Hakuryuu! We're gonna get to see the City of Lights!"

"Is it really the City of Lights if there's only one?" Hakuryuu teases.

* * *

Route 30 is winding enough on its own, but turn off that and you become swallowed by the forest, following roads that have no business being considered more than a one-way, where trucks like monsters stampeding force anything smaller to pull off the road and let them pass. And the roads themselves feel like a spell, winding paths and rolling mountains that disorient and lead the unwary through their divine dance. Away from cities. Away from eyes. Into lands meant not for cars or humans or things that do not prowl with ancient paws.

Of course, the occasional house says otherwise.

Yet that sense remains, that sense of trespass, as though humans are unwelcome. It certainly lends legitimacy to the idea that they're about to go somewhere where the rules of the real world, the laws of gravity and sense, do not apply.

They turn right onto Gravity Hill Road, go up and down steep hills on sharp curves. Along the roadside, wildflowers sway in the breeze of the humid summer's day, and real estate signs proudly proclaim that this slice of wilderness, this hilly field nestled between trees, could be yours if you just call the number below.

There's no gift shop this time. And no crazy codger either. Hakuryuu slams on the brakes to avoid driving straight past the white spray paint that reads GH START. He glances at Judal, a dubious eyebrow raised, and Judal shrugs in response.

"Maybe the rest is further along?" he offers to Hakuryuu's look.

Hakuryuu sighs and puts the car in neutral. Slowly, veeeerry slowly, the car begins to creep forward. Judal watches the flowers pass.

"You know, you'd think they'd put a gift shop right there," he says, pointing at the hill to their left. "The land's for sale! All that billboard advertising and they can't even spring for a gift shop?"

Hakuryuu groans. "The last one was faster than this."

Their car stops a few feet ahead, and they both stare at each other for a long time.

"Well that fucking sucked!" Judal proclaims, banging his fist on the dashboard. "Come on, there's supposed to be a second one further along! Maybe it's better."

They drive along a little farther to a second spray-painted line, but Judal just sighs. "No gift shop here either? Come ooon, you can even tell this one's going downhill!"

Hakuryuu finds himself just laughing and shaking his head. "All the places, all the cheesy, fakey, places we've been, andthis is what you get bugged by?"

"Well I mean look at it!" Judal throws his hand aggressively at the road before them. "All that advertising? For this? Like come on they aren't even trying!" He crosses his arms and huffs into his seat, looking very much the part of a sulking child. "It's the principle of the matter, Hakuryuu. It's about the art. The soul. The passion!"

"The soul?" Hakuryuu says as they start driving again.

"Yeah." Judal looks out the window. "Any fucker can put up signs and lie to people. But when it's a roadside attraction, it's got the potential to be so much more. The road, it's…." Judal takes in a deep breath that makes Hakuryuu look over at him. But if there's an emotion on his face, he can't see it; Judal's face is turned. "The road is an inbetween space. And anyone with half a brain about magic knows that's powerful. Bridges, crossroads, dawn and dusk- anywhere or anywhen or anything that's between has a special property and potency that lends anything done then or there something special. Mix that with the passion and belief of a million fuckin' people, all carrying their own whatever in them…" Judal shakes his head and laughs. "It's something special. It's somethin' really special. Like our furry friend in the trunk."

Hakuryuu's lips are a tight, drawn line, uncertain what shape or words to make to comfort Judal. So they make none. The two drive in silence until they meet back up with 30. There, in the town of Shawnee, Hakuryuu treats Judal to the best soft serve either of them have ever tasted, and it sweetens the experience a little for their memories.

* * *

The mountains and winding paths eventually drop them into a town that's more or less a glorified rest stop: packed gas stations and large parking lots, cheap motels and cheaper restaurants. Compared to the mountains and their tiny towns the pair's passed through on Route 30, it's a metropolis. Judal gets fried mac-n-cheese bites from a Sheetz while Hakuryuu fuels up to continue their long drive through the mountains, which rise before them like green pyramids against a navy-black sky of stormclouds.

Judal leans across the hood of the car, attempting and failing to eat his fried treats in a seductive manner. There's little at all to be found sexy about the crumbs on his face or the ungodly om-nom-nom he devours them with, but Hakuryuu still finds himself smiling a little anyway. The hood of the car is hot though; too hot for Judal to remain across it for long, and he stands back up with an awkward stretch.

"You wanna try to crash here for the night, or?" Judal lets the question linger without a second half to his or- let Hakuryuu come up with whatever other plan goes in the blank.

Hakuryuu shakes his head as he screws the gas cap back into place. "No… No, I still want to get a little further. Staying populous places like this never seems safe."

Judal nods, devouring another mac-n-cheese bite. The memory of Hakuryuu's panicked face hovering over his own face, of Hakuryuu yanking him half-asleep from bed and dragging him into the car on the absolute insistence that their serviceably nice accomodations were all an Al Tharman setup and that any moment, any moment, the trap would spring, still hangs fresh in Judal's mind. The idea of having to leave another real bed didn't sound appealing in the slightest. "That's cool. Let's just keep following 30 then. Sure to find something along the way."

"That was my thought." Hakuryuu opens the door to the car and climbs in. "I've been enjoying the scenic route anyway. Even if that was the worst roadside attraction we've been to yet."

Judal grunts in reply as he buckles in. "I feel so betrayed, Hakuryuu, you don't even know."

"Aaah, and here I thought it was about the pure joy of finding magic the way the 'normies' find it."

Hakuryuu guides the car out of the Sheetz and left through the light, back onto the road. They wait at the longest traffic light in existence, Judal coming up with creative swears as he watches opposing directions of traffic each get two full turns to go before they finally get a brief window where they are able to move. Hakuryuu speeds through the yellow to keep from getting caught at the light again. A mammoth rest plaza with the word GATEWAY above it passes on the left, a final bit of civilization to bid them farewell as they pass under the overpass and back up into the mountains.

* * *

The world turns a weird green-black as clouds completely eclipse the late afternoon sun and dye its light a sickly hue. At first, it's only a few plunks on the windshield, each heavy and large, but then the storm opens up, and the world is swallowed by a wave of water. Hakuryuu swears, swatting the windshield wipers to their maximum speed, but it does little to improve visibility. All ahead is the shifting mass of the storm, with the occasional, indistinct flash and immediate boom of thunder not far off.

"I can't see shit up ahead," Judal says, leaning forward and squinting through the windshield.

"Me either," Hakuryuu says. "And lean back. You're making it worse."

Judal obliges, for once not trying to make things more difficult than they already are. A lone semi appears from the gloom, its girth roaring up at a pace that rattles their car. They both both tense with a hiss of air, and the tractor-trailer flies by in a flash of water and motion. The wipers throw the wave of water back at the truck like the half-hearted splashing of a child against a tsunami.

"Asshole," Judal mutters when they're not full of horrifying thought of those tall lights barrelling over their car and smashing them both to a bloody smear on the back windshield. "Hope he flies off the side of the mountain."

"Maybe he will," Hakuryuu mutters back, near certain that it will. He knows with dread finality that once Judal says something like that, either the rain or his own lingering malice will make it so.

"Shiiit," Judal says, louder this time, to break their shaky quiet. "We need to pull over. We're gonna fucking die in this mess."

"There's no shoulder." Hakuryuu doesn't gesture to punctuate the statement. His eyes stay fixed on the road. One false move and…. Ugh. The trees open up on the far side, and he can vaguely see cliffside in his periphery. The view would probably be gorgeous if the tires on his ancient, second hand car didn't keep threatening to hydroplane with every curve. Even Judal, who can't drive for shit and fears nothing, is gripping the armrest on the door with white knuckles.

They're silent as they drive, with only the roar and crack of the storm to fill the time.

Hakuryuu resists the urge to hiss with fear as they slide into the other lane going around a curve. Thank something for the lack of oncoming traffic. Not God, to be sure but… Oh, who the fuck ever it is be praised, around that curve of narrowly avoided disaster flickers a VACANCY sign.

* * *

Judal and Hakuryuu rush from the car to the tiny motel's leasing office. It's only a couple feet, but they're still soaked to the bone when they throw themselves through the door. Inside it's dark, almost as dark as outside, and a flash of lightning outside takes an eerie blue-white freezeframe of the empty front desk and the deer trophies above it. Judal shakes like a dog, magically flinging the water from his body and all over the room. His hair poofs back to it's full splendor, and he takes an appraising look at the lobby.

"Spooky." He says finally. "And ugly."

"Don't be rude," Hakuryuu says as he approaches the counter. The glass eyes of the deer seem to watch him as he rings the bell for service.

"You know, this is some straight-up Psycho shit." Judal boops a poorly taxidermied wolf on the nose. "Front desk dude's gonna come up and be all Norman Hitchcock or whatever."

"Stop it Judal." Hakuryuu huffs through his wet bangs. "And the character was Norman Bates. Hitchcock was the director."

"Whatever." Judal just snickers, slowly coming up behind Hakuryuu. "It's still spooky," he whispers into Hakuryuu's ear, trailing his fingers down Hakuryuu's arm. Shuddering goosebumps rise in the wake of Judal's fingers on his wet skin. "I mean you know it right? A boy's best friend is his mother."

"Stop it!" Hakuryuu swats Judal, yanking away. Another peal of thunder rippled across the sky, casting them both in sharp light and dark. The lobby remains silent. No sign of a desk agent. Like an abandoned house. Like a tomb. Hakuryuu throws a glance at the bell, contemplates pushing it again, but his fingers lock under the watchful eyes of the deer. A boy's best friend is his mother.

"This place sucks," Judal announces, and he strides over and grabs Hakuryuu by the arm. "Fucker probably fell asleep in the back office. No shower scene for you, you Hitchcock fuck!" Judal throws the last bit at the far wall and drags Hakuryuu out of the motel.

The road is more hospitable than the imagined horrors of the motel, and it's only a few more treacherous curves to find the next one. The neon sign of the Valley View Inn blares brightly through the driving rain, and the yellow A-frame of its leasing office is far more welcoming than the dim, taxidermied horror show of the nameless motel before it. The receptionist looks bored, and almost annoyed at their presence, dripping onto the short, dense carpet. His tired, annoyed demeanor and acne pitted face remind Hakuryuu of a cousin he never really spoke with, but it's better than some imagined killer in a dead woman's dress. They take their keys- real ones, dingy brass on a keyring with a wooden ID tag- and drive across the parking lot to their room. It's… homey, if a bit bland. Painting of a sailboat on a calm sea on the far wall, neutral color wallpaper and sort of yellowed lighting. No taxidermy though, so that's a step up.

Hakuryuu lets out a breath he hadn't thought he was holding and begins to peel off his dripping clothes. "I need a shower," he says. "A long one. I'm freezing and exhausted."

Judal laughs. "Better than sweating to death?"

Hakuryuu nods absently on his way to the bathroom. "Definitely, definitely."

Judal trails after Hakuryuu, sits in the doorless doorway to the bathroom. The sound of the pounding shower blends with the sound of the storm outside, and Judal shuts his eyes, letting it all wash him clean. It's all sound, soothing and rushing. "I'm sorry," he says softly. "For being a dick at the last place."

Hakuryuu sticks his head out of the shower. "Do you need a shower too? The hot water doesn't feel like it'll last very long."

Judal nods, pulling off his shirt and crawling towards the tub to join Hakuryuu.

* * *

The Valley View Inn surprises by being true to its name. Sitting on the concrete curb and gazing out across the parking lot, Hakuryuu takes in a gorgeous view of the fog rolling through the cliffs and valleys and hills below. If there are towns or roads, they're all hidden beneath the cloak of trees that covers the Allegheny Mountains. The rain left everything drenched, and the humidity and heat have for the time broken for it. Hakuryuu's butt is wet from the concrete, but he doesn't mind too much. This moment, this perfect calm of birdsong and mist and soft light, is worth it.

The door behind him opens with a creak, and Judal joins him with a yawn.

"Trouble sleeping again?" Judal asks, mush-mouthed with tired.

Hakuryuu shakes his head. "Just an early riser, Judal."

"Mm," Judal grunts, obviously half asleep. He and mornings have never gotten along. Hakuryuu is pretty sure Judal would knife the concept of morning in the ribs given half a chance. Hakuryuu wraps an arm around him, letting Judal use him as a pillow to escape wakefulness. It's what good friends do.

"Damn if the early morning light isn't beautiful, though," Judal says, flinging a hand at the scene before them. "Pisses me the fuck off. Like, fuck you for existing when I'm asleep, you know?" He laughs. "My ass is getting wet."

"Join the club."

"Oh, we're a club now?"

"Apparently."

Judal mulls that over for a bit. "Well, how about we blow this popsicle stand and be the Breakfast Club so we can eat."

"You know that's about being in detention, not stuffing your face on greasy diner food, right Judal?" Hakuryuu stands and offers Judal his hand up. "And what is it with you and movies these last few days?"

Judal grips his hand tight. "The good hotel you made us leave had cable."

"Aaaah." Hakuryuu smiles and nods, pulling Judal to his feet. "Well, how about this. We drive until we hit the next town, grab some diner food, and then-" he pulls a brochure from within his pajama shirt. "We go visit an elephant museum?"

Judal's eyes light up like a kid on Christmas morning as he snatches the brochure from Hakuryuu's hand. "Holy- Look at this! Hah! Now this is the kind of thing I'm talking about Hakuryuu, this, this is passion. Look at that fuckin- the mannequin head with elephants exploding out, oh we gotta go…"


	3. Milk Carton Boys

"With all the strength of a raging fire, mysterious as the dark side of the moooooooooooon!"

Judal belts out the open window as they whip along the unlit Georgia back road. He had pirated a shit-ton of Disney music at the last hotel, leeching the wi-fi to make his off-brand smartphone into his own personal jukebox. Hakuryuu tried to stop the singing when it started, but Judal, as always, proved unstoppable. So they drive down the foggy two-lane road, tall, skinny trees like skeletons lining their way, and Judal serenading them with his own renditions of the Disney standards.

The darkness of the road is great, and made worse by the pillowy, obfuscating clouds of fog that clog up their headlights, stopping their vision only a few paces before the car's nose. Hakuryuu would drive slower, but it's late, and the road is dark of the light of other vehicles, and he's too tired to stay awake enough to creep the car forward. He needs the speed. He needs the rush.

"Be Prepared" from the Lion King starts up on Judal's phone next, and Hakuryuu finds himself muttering along in spite of himself. It's hard to resist a good villain song, especially when Judal seems to be having the time of his life singing along. Maybe if he does the same, then he'll feel half as good as-

 _ **THUD-THA-THUNK!**_

Hakuryuu slams on the breaks a second too late; it's a reaction to the sound, not the sight. Judal swears, and they're both flung forward in their seats. Judal's phone continues to sing as the they both catch their breath. Yes, our teeth and ambitions are bared…. Be Prepared!

Judal bends down and turns his music off. "The fuck was that?" he asks, looking over at Hakuryuu.

Hakuryuu slowly shakes his head, undoing his seatbelt. "I'm going to go look."

Judal clumsily follows suit. "Me too!" He never likes to be left out of potentially fun and/or gruesome and/or dangerous sightseeing. Even from here he thinks he can see something lying in the road, some great, furred, probably dead-

It gets up in a blur as Judal's climbing from his seat, knocking the door into him and tearing into the woods.

"Fuck," Judal swears again, "we gotta go after it!" And then he pursues without a second thought.

"Judal!" Hakuryuu shouts after him, but only the whoosh of the chase and the cicada-silence of the night replies. He climbs back into the car and pulls it off to the side of the road, killing the engine and taking the keys. Then he follows after Judal with a flashlight.

Judal isn't hard to find; for all his excitement, he tires quickly when doing actual physical tasks, and Hakuryuu finds him crouched over a patch of fur on a fallen tree branch. He grins up at Hakuryuu. "Bet our buddy went this way."

"Or it was some other thing," Hakuryuu replies. "Don't run off like that. You'll worry me to death."

Judal snickers, standing up again. "What, don't tell me you're still scared of the dark like when we were kids?"

An owl hoots in the distance, and every rustle in the dark seems alive with menace. Hakuryuu grits his teeth at the insult, but he tries not to let his annoyance show. "I just worry when you're out of my sight. You get into trouble." There. That's not too annoyed, or too weak. Judal seems proud of the assertion too, puffed up like a proud bird. Hakuryuu shines his flashlight on the fur, then on the woods around. Whatever left that fur, and whatever they hit, whether they were the same or different, were both long gone. "Come on, Judal. I don't like leaving the car unattended like this. Let's get back on the road."

"Yeah, yeah…" Judal looks around once more as well, as though somehow he'll see something Hakuryuu missed in the skeletal trees. "You win."

Hakuryuu nods, because of course he wins. He is, after all, their self appointed voice of reason. Judal complains about the muddy ground the whole walk back to their car, where there is another surprise waiting for them.

"What in Il Illah's name-" Judal throws a hand angrily in the direction of the girl leaned up against their car. She lifts her head to nod at them, side ponytail bobbing a little as she does so. "Who the hell are you?"

* * *

The girl's name was Morgiana.

She said she was heading west- didn't say where, just that she was going there. She stared at them through heavy lashed eyes after that. Waiting.

Judal opened his mouth to tell her where to shove it, but Hakuryuu elbowed him. He offered her a ride. Said they were heading south for now, but that cutting west shouldn't be a problem if that was what she wanted.

She said she didn't care.

Judal dragged Hakuryuu by the arm then, behind the car, and they bickered in voices they thought were soft enough to go unheard. We can't trust her, and We can't leave a lady all by herself. What about the thing we hit, and Who fucking cares, Judal.

She could hear them just fine, but she didn't interrupt. It would be rude.

Driver's rules was what won in the end, and Hakuryuu opened the passenger door for Morgiana. Helping girls is the right thing to do.

* * *

"So what are you going west for?" Hakuryuu asks when they finally stop. Mid-morning. Tiny town with a tinier name. The gas station coffee tastes like sludgy ash in his mouth, but he keeps drinking it on the vain hope that it'll have enough caffeine to bust through his rapidly growing tolerance.

"I'm meeting someone," Morgiana replies. Her speech is plain, to the point; a welcome departure from Judal's interminable rambles.

Hakuryuu takes another bitter sip of his coffee and scans the parking lot of the general store across the street for a sign of Judal. "A friend?" he asks Morgiana, curious.

"You could say that."

Hakuryuu nods. "We're sort of doing the opposite. Driving around, no destination, trying to… to see as many different places as we can." He doesn't know if he can finish the coffee. It's that bad today. But his body is crying for caffeine… he stifles a yawn. "We've been on the road for a while."

"It smells like it."

Hakuryuu turns red. "I. I didn't realize. I'm sorry-"

This time it's Morgiana who starts a little. She turns and looks at him. "No, it's not that bad. I just have a good nose."

Hakuryuu grunts, but he's not sure he believes her. Can he subtly try to sniff his pits to check? He forces down another sip of coffee. Judal's loping across the street now, taking long strides in his billowing pants and waving at Hakuryuu. Maybe it's Judal that smells, or maybe he can catch a whiff of Judal's B.O. that'll let him know just how bad he smells? Either way, the worry is making his disgusting coffee go down faster. It gives him something to do with his mouth other than further embarrass himself talking to their pretty hitchhiker.

"So how long are you gonna be taggin' along, Muscles?" Judal asked. "Where the hell are you going, anyway?"

"She's just going west with us for a while," Hakuryuu said, cutting Judal off before he could say anything more offensive.

It didn't really help. "Whaaaat? But we've already been west! We just did west!"

Hakuryuu groaned, rolling his eyes to glare at Judal. "And? What, did you want to keep driving south until we hit Florida, then caulk up the car and float it to Cuba?" Judal opened his mouth but Hakuryuu cut him off again. "We've backtracked before. You're just making a stink to be difficult."

Judal frowned deeply and threw himself into the backseat of the car. "Whatever."

Hakuryuu offered a sheepish, apologetic smile to Morgiana, who said nothing in reply. "Georgia's the peach state," he said to no one in particular, but hoped Judal would still listen to him. "And it's still summer. We can go to a peach orchard, pick some fruit along the way. That'd be fun, right? Rather than just blazing through the state without stopping?" They're all getting into the car now, and the absence of the radio and Judal's rambling makes Hakuryuu unable to stop talking as he pulls the car out. He's gotten used to the sound. "And I'm sure there's some great roadside attractions, too. It'll be fun Judal."

* * *

Summer is hard.

Nights too short.

Days too hot.

Sweat clings dirt to the pads of your feet, and fur seems to suffocate. People on the roads at all hours. So many people, all smelling like sweat and metal and meat. Even at night, heat. Even at night, smells.

Tongue lolling. Too damn hot.

* * *

The words "Peach Festival" are not ones that Judal can easily resist. Especially not when they're said to him by a smiling Hakuryuu over a just-the-two-of-them breakfast while Morgiana sleeps in. They pull a smile from his lips, and that smile makes Hakuryuu sigh and laugh and smile back, glad their dispute is forgotten.

The three of them are some of the only non-white people there, but there's music and shitty carnival games and, most importantly, plenty of perfectly ripe peaches.

Judal shoves their basket full with the best peaches in the orchard, climbing trees with childlike abandon to get the choicest fruits. Hakuryuu smiles to see the grin on his face, and it feels like, maybe, life won't be an utter disaster just because they have an extra person along for the trip.

Morgiana gives them space, looking at displays of local crafts and watching them from the corner of her eye. No need to interrupt. She can watch them from a distance.

Afterwards they get to take a hayride to the rustic, barn-style building where they can make their purchases. The inside smells like cider and is decorated in the earthy, wholesome tones of country America. There's more local art, and mass-produced home goods designed to look like local art, and the overall feeling that this is a place where you're getting something Real, despite where it was made. Hakuryuu is half-surprised Judal doesn't try to pick-pocket the entire ambiance to shove in their trunk with the taxidermied jackalope.

(He's not entirely sure how one would go about pick-pocketing the feeling of a place, but he's sure Judal could manage it.)

Instead, Judal settles for pocketing a small wooden star and then wandering off to go look at the books on local history. It seems an odd choice to Hakuryuu, but Judal is nothing if not odd. He and Morgiana patiently wait through the line while Judal goofs off, and he insists on buying Morgiana's souvenir for her.

(It would be impolite to make a lady on her own cover such a thing)

Morgiana insists on at least carrying the bags, and Hakuryuu would swear he sees her dig a hole in the wood floor with the heel of her flat when he objects that they'd be too heavy. He gives her the bags, and she seems satisfied.

"Judal," Hakuryuu says, walking over to reclaim his distracted friend. "We're all done. Time to go."

Judal turns and greets Hakuryuu with a wolfish smile that is made even more wolfish when Hakuryuu glimpses the grisly illustration in the book he's looking at. "Hey, Hakuryuu," he says, pointing at the picture. THE WOLG AND THE NODOROC reads the heading above it, and Hakuryuu isn't sure what terrifies him more in the illustration- the horrifying creatures wolfish, hyena-esque appearance or the terrible quality of the art. Scanning the article surrounding it, he sees things about swamp lights, and "Old Indian Legends" and similarly offensively inaccurate-sounding bs. "Wanna go see the gates of hell?"

* * *

"Hey, Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu."

Hakuryuu blinks an eye open, bitter to be awoken from his sweet and peaceful dreams. Judal stares back at him, the whites of his eyes panic-wide in the dark holes of his sleepy bags and smeared makeup. It's enough to rouse him to motion, even if he doesn't want to wake up.

"Shush, Judal," he says, trying to pull Judal into the bed and to his side. "Shush. Shut up. Let's get some sleep. I was dreaming…"

"I heard something outside," Judal says, not a shred of sleep in his voice. "Moving. Growling. Do you think it could be-"

"Sleeping, Judal." Hakuryuu claps a hand over Judal's mouth.

Judal licks him.

"Augh!"

"I'm just saying, it could be the Wolg." He's all nervous energy corded up in Hakuryuu's arms. Hakuryuu feels the magic inside Judal prickle his skin, feels it like it's going to burst free of Judal's flesh and go running. "We should go look outside, see if we can find it! We could become like, heroes. Or at least have a cool story. Though I guess if there was news coverage it might cause problems for our whole running away schtick. But hey! We'll burn that bridge when we get to it!"

"Judal," Hakuryuu says, petting his head. "Deep breath. Let's go for a walk, okay?"

They get up and Judal brings Hakuryuu clothes, something warm against the night chill. Summer is in its final throes, hot one moment, cold the next, and they dress to meet it. There's a general store just up the road- they walk hand in hand along the starlight shoulder to its halo of parking lot lights. Hakuryuu grips Judal's hand like a dog's leash and listens as Judal rattles off all the thoughts in his head. It's not something that needs response- just something he needs to get out, to excise, to free him of all the baggage rattling around in him.

That's why it catches him completely off guard when Judal asks him a question directly.

"Do you think we're doing the right thing?" Judal asks.

Hakuryuu looks at him, puzzled. "Helping Morgiana? Of course."

"No, no, not that, I mean…" He gestures all around them. "This. All of this. This running and hiding and driving all over with cash we're rapidly burning through and like nine million fake credit cards. Is it the right thing to so?"

The lights in the general store buzz overhead at a slightly different pitch than the lights in the drink case. Judal sighs, heavy, tired, and opens up the case. His hands hover, indecisive, and he ends up grabbing a carton of milk over his usual juices and sodas.

"You know in cartoons and movies and stuff they always put missing kids' pictures on these things. But I don't think I've ever actually seen one in real life."

Hakuryuu shrugs. "It's probably something they did a long time ago. Or maybe someone just made it up, and everyone has just copied them since."

He watches Judal stare at the milk for a long time before putting it back. Hakuryuu grabs him a bottle of juice before the drink case falls shut again.

"Hey, Judal," Hakuryuu finally says as they're leaving. "You deserved to run away, too."

* * *

There is something seeing, and there is something being seen. There is something hunting, and there is something being hunted. Sometimes these things are one and the same. Sometimes they are not. Sometimes the seer is the hunted, and the seen is the hunter.

Tonight there are two who hunt.

Paws on pavement, leaping through the darkness between the parking lots and the street lights. Cool breeze tonight. Plenty of young prey out. Jaws snap on a rabbit, on hot blood and sinew that twitch as they are gulped down. Street-animals, stringy and small, taste like trash. Not like home. Better than nothing. It feeds the beast.

Another set of eyes is on a general store. Those eyes see, and two are seen. They smell like too long travel, like weary souls. One smells like death. The watcher sniffs the air, its long, forked tongue testing the winds as its nose twitches. Home is calling- not only for the hunter, but for its prey, bubbling in the dark, in the wastes. Drive him, drown him, consume him, be consumed in turn. It stalks.

 _They_ stalk.

What is seen tonight is ignorant; it is too late to stop the jaws from closing.


	4. Roadside Tall Tales

Judal leans on the counter of the restaurant while Morgiana counts out the change for their meal. Hakuryuu tried to persuade her not to pay, but Judal and Morgiana both insisted that Hakuryuu save his funds.

"Hey, have you heard about the Wolg? Or Nodoroc?" Judal asks a server at rest. "You know anything about 'em?"

The boy gives him a weird look before disappearing through a door marked "Employees Only," and Judal sighs. The man taking Morgiana's money chuckles.

"Oh, he won't know anything for you, boy. He's not from around here." The cash register punctuates the statement with a cartoon-perfect ka-ching. "But I lived round these parts since I was a little boy. Grand-daddy was from around here too. And I could tell you all about the Nodoroc." He offers Judal the perfect grin of storyteller about to weave a tall tale as he handed Morgiana her receipt.

Morgiana mutters a thank you as she tucks the receipt into her coin purse.

"Now, the Nodoroc, why, some say it's a pit to hell itself! You won't find it marked on any maps nowadays, and it's gotten a little smaller as the world's gotten a little less magical of a place, but back in the old days of settlers and Indians, they say it spanned miles. The Wolg crawled out of it in the early days. Some of the white men who settled this land thought he was the devil, or his hunter, or a demon out to devour them all… Sniffing the air with his tongue like a snack, slipping into towns and out with his prey to drag them into the Nodoroc… but the Indians, they knew. They knew the Wolg's true nature."

Judal leans forward. "And that was…?"

"The Wolg is a gatekeeper and a soul judger. He won't drag no righteous soul out into that bubbling hell-pit, no, he sniffs out the wicked and chases them down into the Nodoroc as judgement for their crimes. They hear the swish thump of his great ol' tail, see the uneven lope of his legs, and then they go runnin' like sheep from a wolf, till he runs 'em into the Nodoroc so the Devil can claim their wicked souls." The old man leans forward, his eyebrows rising high into his crinkled forehead until they almost met his snow-white hairline. "The Indians knew to just stay clear of the Nodoroc. And if you know what's good for you, you will too."

Judal grins at the old man. "If there's one thing I've never learned, it's what was good for me. What else do you know?"

"Well," he continues, "one thing I know for sure, it's too late once you see its bright red-"

Morgiana yanks on Judal's arm. "Hakuryuu's waiting for us back at the booth. Come on."

"Ah, what, but-" Morgiana's grip digs into Judal's arm with surprising strength, and she pulls Judal from the counter. His cheap sneakers slip on the linoleum, and he staggers to keep from falling. "Hey!"

Morgiana glances askance with eyes that hold no barter. "You're wasting time. Hakuryuu said he wanted this to be a short meal stop." She shoves him in a way that looked like it should have been gentle, but sent Judal stumbling either out of force or his own clumsiness. "We still have a way's west to go today."

Hakuryuu sets down the paper he'd been scanning. "Morgiana's right, Judal. Let's go."

Judal glances back at the old man at the counter, who stole a smile in Judal's direction in between transactions. "You be careful asking about the Wolg, boy! Else it might catch your scent, and only God Himself'll be able to save you!"

* * *

The Wolg's bright red… what?

Judal watches sullenly from the back seat as Morgiana's hair whips in the breeze, as Hakuryuu chats her up like she's an old friend and he's just soooo glad to see her again and play catch up. Hakuryuu doesn't have any friends but him. It isn't fair.

Despite Hakuryuu and Morgiana's insistence that they still had a ways to go, they make it an early night, making their lodging at a two-story motel on a desolate stretch of highway. Judal doesn't even complain. His phone gps says they're close to the Nodoroc, so worst comes to worst, he can sneak out and go get some sight-seeing in while the other two keep being buddy-buddy or whatever.

He watches Morgiana laugh, politely, at a miserable abortion of a joke that Hakuryuu stumbles out. The hand that dragged him from the diner connects to an arm corded with powerful muscle. Her eyes are hungry- he knows that look. This is someone searching for something, or maybe hunting something, or maybe….

He bites the inside of his cheek and insinuates himself between the two.

"Hey, Hakuryuu, since we're making it an early night, why don't we go take a little time just the two of us?"

* * *

Hakuryuu laughs softly, wrapping his arms around Judal's waist and kissing his ear from behind. "You've been so quiet I was worried you might have been mad at me again."

Judal takes Hakuryuu's right hand off his waist and kisses it right over the thumb. "Why would I be mad?"

Hakuryuu kisses down the line of Judal's neck before resting his head on his shoulder. "I don't know. You seem to be… Distant? And still sort of upset about Morgiana being along with us." He kisses his shoulder. "After we reunite her with her friend or whatever… do you want to go back to going south? I'll take you to Disney or something."

Judal laughs. "Disney? Isn't that a little pricey for what we have left?"

"I trust your ability to get us into places we shouldn't be."

Judal feigns looking scandalized. "And scam good old Walt? Hakuryuu, I'm shocked at you!" And then he laughs, which turns into gasps and giggles and squirming as Hakuryuu grabs hold of his hip and begins to kiss his neck all over again, peppering it with light kisses that- Fuck, that distracted him from what he wanted to say! He squirms away, gasping, flushed, and tries to regain his composure. "I. Wait. There was. Look about Morgiana, there was something I wanted…"

Hakuryuu tilts his head to the side.

"I think she might be the Wolg!" Judal blurts out before he can get distracted again.

Hakuryuu visibly sags with frustration. "Judal…"

Judal tenses back up, like a spring wound too tight. "You don't believe me."

Hakuryuu advances his words with caution. "I think you're a little jealous, and it's making you act irrationally. Also I think you've been having a paranoid streak lately about this whole Wolg thing and-"

"The man at the diner-" Judal tries.

"The man at the diner used the word 'Indians' to refer to Native Americans and shouted after you like a loon when we left." Hakuryuu has a hard time keeping the huff out of his voice. "He was just an old man who liked to tell spooky stories."

Judal doesn't look convinced. The set of his jaw is hard. "Don't patronize me. There's something here, I can feel it, and there's something not right about Morgiana. She refuses to room with us-"

"A young woman deserves her privacy-"

"-I know I heard her going somewhere last night-"

"-it's not a crime to leave the hotel-"

"-I'll prove I'm right!"

"The only thing you're going to prove is that you're a crazy idiot!" Hakuryuu shouts. The people in the room next to them bang on the wall, and they both jump. Right. Hakuryuu reigns his temper in, because he is practically a grown man, and he's not going to lose his cool over some silly thing like this.

Judal is a knotted pile of resentment and determination. "Oh, I'm a crazy idiot, am I?" He scoffs a little. "Doesn't mean I'm not right."

He shoves past Hakuryuu and slams the door shut behind him. Hakuryuu stands there, mildly dumbfounded, feeling the threat of tears in his throat, and a blossoming of rage that Judal got the last word.

"Yes it does," he growls at the door and throws himself on the bed.

* * *

Hakuryuu rolls out of bed, no longer able to keep moping. Judal's been gone long enough, longer than he usually is, and it's enough to make Hakuryuu worry that he might have actually made a mistake this time. Judal probably made more of a mistake, granted, with being rude to Morgiana, and being completely crazy and unreasonable, but maybe he's at fault a little this time too. Maybe.

He slips on his shoes by the door of the hotel room and goes out into the sticky, overcast night. "Judal?" he calls, walking down the concrete catwalk and to the stairs that lead to the parking lot. "Judaaal."

Overhead, the lights buzz like flies, and mosquitoes and gnats swarm over their surface with soft dinks. The noise is intolerable in that way that quiet noises are when you are alone in an otherwise silent night.

"Judal, I'm sorry. Why don't we go back to the room and talk this over. After that, we'll... I don't know. We can eat some peaches?" Hakuryuu pads down the length of the building and around to its side. "Come on, Judal, this isn't funny."

He sighs, trying to think of where he might have gone. This is God's Country, which means nothing's open past six pm, and there's nothing around for miles. He can't imagine Judal would have the patience and stamina to get back up the highway to the nearest McDonald's, nor that he would be so stupid as to teleport himself somewhere. He takes a deep breath and shouts again.

Only the buzzing answers.

Hakuryuu turns, retracing his steps. The car's still where he left it, and Judal can't drive anyway.

"Maybe Morgiana knows," he mutters under his breath, heading for her room. "Judal was going on about her... I hope he hasn't bothered her too much... Or hurt her..." He runs a hand through his hair with a sigh and goes back up the stairs.

"Miss Morgiana," he says, raising a hand to knock on her door. But when his hand comes down on the door, it swung open, having already been ajar. Dread seizes his gut. "Miss Morgiana?" Hakuryuu pushes the door open the rest of the way, poking his head in. The room is a disaster zone of torn bedding and discarded blankets.

"Oh no..."

* * *

The room the boy had slept in was in is empty. Testing. Sniffing. Tongue flicking. Gone, yes, gone, but not long. Tail starts up with excitement. Swish-thump. Swish-thump. Turning, unseen, back onto the road. Somewhere in the hotel, someone dreams of that thing they did and never told anyone about and regrets everything when they wake.

The Wolg has already chosen its quarry, and has no time for petty persons such as that.

Back down the road. Back to the call. Back home.

The Nodoroc has already summoned the prey.

Swish-thump.

Swish-thump.

* * *

Hakuryuu grips the steering wheel tighter. It'll be fine. It'll all be fine. It has to be. Just straight down the Atlanta Highway. It seems stupid to think that some portal to hell would be on this major of a road, but fog rolled in as the sun went down; now the wet night air sticks in his lungs like gelatin, makes his heat- and smoke-scarred respiratory system wheeze for an inhaler he hasn't had since elementary school. He curses his pride, for the inhaler and for Judal's disappearance.

He has to slam on the brakes when the placid, electric voice on his phone announces that he's arrived at his destination. Hakuryuu flings himself out of the car, grimacing at the sulfurous smell of the bog. He'd never have given this place a second thought had they been driving, and yet…

A shiver runs down his spine at the prickle of magic in the air.

Hakuryuu jogs from the car into the woods, casting his flashlight from side to side. Should he call for Judal? Or would doing so just endanger them both? His foot catches in the muck, twisting and sending him to his knees. He swears under his breath and rubs at his ankle, fumbling in the dark for his fallen flashlight. Why the hell does Judal have to be like this? Why the hell did he, personally, have to be so stubborn and refuse to believe Judal? Even if he still doubts that Miss Morgiana would be a terrible monster, the fact still remains that the belief that she was now has him slogging through a swamp in backwater Georgia.

"If he's back at the hotel and I did this for nothing," Hakuryuu grumbles as he pulls himself out of the muck.

"Found you!"

Hakuryuu's ears prick up. That's Judal's voice. He'd know it anywhere, clear as day, and he runs in its direction, breaking through the trees as the muck he slogs through gets deeper and deeper.

Judal looks decidedly dryer, but Hakuryuu's relief keeps him from being too bitter. The clearing is wreathed in shimmering foxfire gas light, and the sense of wrongness and power thrums straight to Hakuryuu's core. This feeling, deep in his gut, makes the mystery spots and souvenirs and stupid roadside attractions make sense. Is this what Judal's been chasing?

If it is, then Hakuryuu fears to know just what he plans on doing with it.

Judal squares off against a great beast of a wolf with bright red fur and fangs that glimmer in the wan light. Is that the Wolg? Is this Judal's mystery beast?

"I knew I'd find you here," he says, sounding almost gleeful. "You might have Hakuryuu fooled, but not me. I saw you change. I saw you go off into the night. And now I'm going to catch you and drain you of everything you've got. Take a little piece of this place with me. You get it?"

The creature shakes its head, and the snarl sounds almost human.

Hakuryuu hunkers down into the reeds, trying to move as quietly through the mire as he can. Whether Judal is nuts or not, he doesn't want that thing to hurt him… and when it springs, Hakuryuu does too, tackling it to the ground.

The beast struggles in Hakuryuu's arms, teeth bared but not striking, eyes wide enough to see the whites of its eyes. Judal grins, shocked and overjoyed. He threads his fingers in the air and the smell of ozone overtakes everything. Hakuryuu feels a weird, motion sick feeling come over him- the feeling of reality shifting. The monster in his arms gives a too human groan, and she becomes Morgiana once again.

"I knew," Judal rasps. Hakuryuu feels a spike of concern at how ragged he sounds, at the way his fingertips bleed slightly from the scorching touch of magic. Mages use wands for a reason. "I knew you weren't just some hitchhiker. You're the Wolg. And you've been stalking us."

Morgiana shakes her head. "No! You've got it all wrong. I'm-"

"Shut up," Hakuryuu hisses, pulling his arm tighter across her throat. "I don't want to hear whatever excuses you have for you stalking us." He has to keep a solid front with Judal.

"I am not the Wolg," she gasps through the tightness of Hakuryuu's grip.

"Whatever you are," Judal says, eyes narrow and hard, "you're not gonna be it for much longer." The clouds shift, and the light of the full moon casts Judal's face in eerie, sallow light. The air prickles again; the world goes sharp with cruel intent that smells like bog water and blood.

"Judal," Hakuryuu tries to warn, but the world is already reshaping under his feet and he cannot speak for its inversion. Morgiana feels small in his arms, and he wants to say more but he cannot and then he can and there is something great and high and-

A horrible swish-thump breaks the sound of shattering. Judal starts, angry and confused at the intrusion, and goes pale. He staggers back a few feet, and the swish-thump follows him. Swish-thump. Swish-thump.

"Oh hell." Judal can't think of anything more to say.

The real Wolg springs forward and knocks Judal into the muck and mire.

"No! Get off!" Judal tries to kick out, tries to shove it off, but its massive forepaws press down, down, down until the bog water is threatening into his mouth ad he coughs against it.

Hakuryuu lets go of Morgiana, whatever threat she might have posed forgotten. "Judal!" He springs at the Wolg and grabs hold, yanking at its coarse, dark fur. The beast bucks, but Hakuryuu hods. It's enough that Judal can roll away, gasping and flailing in the shallow muck of the Nodoroc. The Wolg bucks again and throws Hakuryuu aside.

Hakuryuu cannot tear his eyes away from the tusks and fangs that glint and fester in the wound of the Wolg's mouth. A tongue like a serpent's tests the air, and the eyes, the eyes, the blood red eyes of fire burn into his soul and see his failings, his guilt. Killer. Killer, brother-killer who lives when others should have been the ones to survive, just like the guilt in his heart swears at night. The beast's tail gives a great SWISH-THUMP as it opens its mouth to speak or devour or drag.

Morgiana tackles it from the side, her own teeth a gleam like silvered moonlight. The Wolg snarls, but she doesn't back down. She's a bright red streak like a wound, striking and dodging and running and striking again, a foe faster than the chimeric Wolg's great size can catch. One massive paw catches her shoulder, but she goes down in the mud for only a moment.

There is no weight of guilt in her movement, no hollowness to her howl.

Hakuryuu pulls himself from the grime and rushes to Judal's side, pulling him up. "Judal," he whispers, pressing his face Judal's, his hands feeling for any wound. "Judal, are you alright?"

Judal coughs and pushes at Hakuryuu with his bleeding, magic-scorched hands. "I'm fine," he says, but he is shaking. "I'm fine." His legs tremble as he stands. "It just knocked the wind out of me."

The Wolg and Morgiana square off before them, each snarling, hackles raised, but every time the Wolg attempts to get at them, Morgiana moves to block it. Judal swallows and raises a hand once more.

The world tilts so hard that all three of them hit the floor of their hotel room in a crumpled heap.

Judal's the first one up, locking the door and checking outside to make sure that their car made it back before pulling the blinds shut.

"You're welcome," he says, turning around and looking as impressive as he can with his hair caked with grime and his clothes ruined and his hands bleeding. Morgiana cocks her head to the side and growls, and Hakuryuu just groans from his place on the floor. "And, um," Judal amends, "I'm sorry I guess."

* * *

The next morning, when they're washed and clean, and a little less shaken, they drop Morgiana off at a Greyhound bus station.

"Hey…" Judal says, awkwardly rubbing his arm and not quite making eye contact with her. "I'm sorry I thought you were a horrible monster from some hell-swamp that wanted to drag me and Hakuryuu into the void, and that I kiiiind of almost eliminated you from existence 'cuz of it. That wasn't cool." They're standing around in the almost pleasant morning air, waiting for the bus to arrive. "I was just thinking. I mean. You don't have to ditch if you don't want to. You don't take up that much space."

Hakuryuu pats him on the back for a job well done. Apologizing is always hard for him.

Morgiana shakes her head though.

"You two are trouble." She sounds more amused than annoyed. "More trouble than you're worth. I'll take my chances on the bus."

Hakuryuu looks embarrassed, and he forces out a laugh to hide it. "I suppose we are a little… much. Especially Judal."

"Hey!"

Morgiana nods. "Judal… Yes. The scent of disaster clings to him. Like something terrible about to happen." She looks soberly at Hakuryuu. "You should be careful if you plan to stay with him." Then, a miracle- a small, wry smile graces her face. "Though that has nothing to do with why you two are trouble. I just don't want to be stuck on the road with two lovestruck boys."

Hakuryuu goes red-faced and tries to sputter out an apology. Before much gets out though, a bus pulls up from the foggy gloom and wheezes to a stop a few feet shy of the greyhound sign. Morgiana pulls her heavy pack on with little trouble and smiles wider at them.

"Thank you again for letting me ride with you."

Judal nods, shoving his hands in his hoodie pocket. "I hope you find that person you're looking for."

She nods. "I do too. I've never really known any others of my kind. I hope you can stay unfound by whatever's looking for you."

And with that, Morgiana turns and is gone- onto the bus and off west, to whomever it is she seeks. Hakuryuu sighs and leans sideways into Judal.

"So do you want to go back to going South?" he asks the murky dawn.

Judal shrugs in reply. "I dunno. I'm getting pretty sick of this humidity. You pick for a while."

They get back in the car and just drive, letting the purr of the engine and the grumble of the tires on the asphalt fill the silence between them. The road signs stretch before them, glowing, hazy beacons of ports that cannot harbor them from the storm that pursues them. Neither mentions the Wolg, or things aloud of Al Tharmen. Judal's hand finds Hakuryuu's without looking, and they find comfort enough in that.

There's comfort enough in that.


	5. Lost Souls like Lost Pets, part 1

Judal hadn't slept well since Georgia. That in itself wasn't unusual- the whole of the time Hakuryuu had known Judal, which was most of his life, he had been more likely to be found awake than not if the moon was out, choosing instead to get his sleep by inches napping in trees. But since Georgia, it felt different. Finding Judal awake at two am, watching late night TV with the closed captions on so as not to wake Hakuryuu? Normal. Finding him standing by the door or the window of their hotel room, squinting into the fluorescent buzz of the parking lot, his hands fitful and his eyes haunted? Not so much. Even in the car, Judal seemed on edge- gone was any instance of him nodding off, head resting against the window as they drove over the flat expanse of highway.

They had ended up driving west again- when they'd hit the Florida border, Judal had loudly decided that Florida was lame, and that it was mostly swamp, and the bits that weren't swamp were Disney, and they couldn't afford Disney, so why go to Florida if you aren't going to go to Disney?

Hakuryuu let him rant, a small smile on his face. "I don't want to deal with any more creepy swamps either, Judal."

Judal started, swore at him, and went off to take a piss.

* * *

The thing most people don't realize about pool is that it's mostly a game of math. Sure, they get that angles play a part, and it's an easy example to show high schoolers the importance of geometry- but that geometry is all through the game. The biggest skill in pool isn't in cue control or the mechanical elements that other games of sport hinge on, it's training your eye to see the math on the felt and make it happen.

Hakuryuu hadn't been half bad at math in high school- he's no stereotypical Asian math genius, but he was never the kid that dreaded each test and report card. He watches Judal botch a shot so bad the cue ball skips off the table and laughs, a little smile on his face.

"You're hopeless," he says, and Judal scowls.

"It's not my fault the balls have a mind of their own! You're just good."

"Good enough to make you mess up your shots?" he teases.

"Your butt's good enough."

Hakuryuu rolls his eyes and retrieves the cue ball from under a nearby chair, apologizing to the man sitting on it. The guy, big burly redneck dude, gives an unexpectedly warm smile and tells Hakuryuu not to worry. Hakuryuu apologizes again, because, well, what else was he supposed to do?

They were out in Tennessee now, and the crowd in the dimly lit cue club was not the kind of people they usually hung out with. They were the only non-white people there, save for a single elderly black man drinking at the bar, and the walls of the club were festooned with neon signs advertising cheap beer and something called "Topless Tuesdays." Hakuryuu is grateful that they rolled into town on a Wednesday.

Hakuryuu sinks two more balls on his turn, and Judal manages to sink a single of his stripes before missing a shot and passing the turn back to Hakuryuu, who proceeds to clear off the last of his balls and then sink the eight. Judal pouts so hard it almost has a sound.

"This is bullshit," he announces. "You're too good." He scans the bar, leaning on the cheap house cue. Hakuryuu sighs, watching Judal scope out the crowd until his eyes land on a lanky dude who had just managed to get a pretty solid win on guy in a pit-stained white shirt. "I'm gonna go play somebody else."

Hakuryuu shakes his head, going to take a seat. "You're not going to find anyone worse than you in this bar, Judal."

Judal flips Hakuryuu the bird as he walks over to the lanky guy. "Hey," he says, giving the lanky dude a lopsided grin. "Mind if I play a round with ya?"

The lanky guy eyes every gay inch of Judal like he's some sort of alien before looking him in the eye with a pitying smile. "We're playin' fer cash, kid."

"That's cool," Judal says. "I have cash!"

Hakuryuu can't help but wince at the childlike exuberance in his voice and the thought of Judal gambling. The American Pool Association patch ironed onto the shoulder of the lanky guy's jean jacket didn't help. "Please do not lose all our money," he calls from across the bar. Judal flips him the bird again.

The lanky dude shrugs and nods. "Well, if you're sure." They lay their cash down and rack up the balls.

The first game goes pretty quick- despite Judal getting lucky and managing to sink a ball on the break, and then following it up by getting another, the guy he was playing cleaned up the table in the next three turns. Judal swears, and glances at Hakuryuu, and before Hakuryuu can protest he slaps down more money for another game, this time at a higher ante. That game is even worse, with the lanky guy cleaning the table and Judal seeming to let his frustration at losing so many times in a row get the better of him.

The lanky guy seems to take pity on Judal and invites him out for a smoke break. Hakuryuu can't hear what is said, so instead he watched them like a shadow play. Judal accepts a free cigarette, but he doesn't smoke it much past what was required to light it. There is story in the way he holds himself, the two of them almost silhouetted in yellow lights outside the bar, his hands telling a story of being on the road on their way to family, of how this place is pretty cool to hang in and how he wishes he could stay more than one night but hey, family, you know? The lanky guy warms up to Judal from the banter, and maybe he says something, but Hakuryuu doesn't know his spiel like he knows Judal's. Even if he isn't saying much though, Hakuryuu can see that he's letting his walls down, seeing Judal as eccentric and dumb- someone you don't feel too bad robbing blind in pool. They come back in, and Hakuryuu can hear Judal weedling another game out of the guy.

Hakuryuu forces himself just to drink his coke and not smile.

Game three looks like pure dumb luck. Judal certainly calls it that when the eight ball sinks on the break, and the lanky guy smacks his forehead in surprise.

"A win's a win, I guess," Judal laughs, "but hey, I don't feel good sayin' that's the end. Wanna re-rack and we can play one more, make it fair?"

The thing about pool is it's a game all about math. And the thing about Judal is that he's nowhere near as dumb as most people take him for. Money is slapped down, the balls are reracked in the triangle, and the hunt is on. Hakuryuu can practically hear the Jaws theme play in his head as he watches Judal mutter to his cue and the balls, awkwardly arranging himself before lining up shots so precise that you'd think he was a firing squad. He makes it look accidental. The lanky guy never saw it coming.

Judal shakes his head and laughs. "I dunno how I did that," he says with perfectly practiced honesty after sinking the eight.

The lanky dude stares at the table. "Me either."

Judal collects the stack of money they'd both ponied up. Something close to $200, if Hakuryuu had been counting right. "I think I'm gonna take that luck and bow out then. Lightning definitely never strikes thrice." The lanky dude shakes his head, still puzzling it all out, and Judal comes back to Hakuryuu, slipping him the cash. "I'm gonna take a piss and meet you at the car," he whispers. "I hustled that dumbass blind. Let's get outta here before anyone else realizes there's blood in the water."

Hakuryuu smiles and shakes his head. "Shark," he whispers back, kissing Judal on the cheek before they parted ways.

* * *

Judal's good mood continues after they're back in the room, excitedly chattering about what a picture-perfect hustle it had been. Maybe they should expand their grift repertoire- he'd heard one about a violin using two people that sounded like a hoot.

"Maybe," Hakuryuu says, in a voice that means 'no' but doesn't want to ruin the moment. "Maybe we can try some more."

"I'm just getting too good at pool hustling, you know?" Judal says, flopping in Hakuryuu's lap. The cheap motel bed spring wheezes under him. "It's losing the challenge."

"That's a good thing," Hakuryuu says with a chuckle, running his fingers through Judal's hair. "We wouldn't be able to keep going if we run out of money. And then where would we be?" That makes Judal quiet. Hakuryuu sighs, realizing his misstep, and moves his hand to rub the creases out from between Judal's brows. The jubilant air is gone, and the shadows have returned.

"How long are we going to keep running?" Judal asks.

Hakuryuu had never meant to stay on the road. His goal had been instead to just disappear, to enter the chrysalis of the road and emerge on the other side as another person, with another life. He hadn't meant to circle the country like a vulture, one eye always trained on the rotten core he had flown from. Judal- cruel, stupid, tender, clever Judal- had changed that. Hakuryuu didn't cast blame. It was simply how things were. He wouldn't trade Judal's closeness for a simple, stolen life.

He answers with a simpler, easier truth. "I don't know."

Judal chews on that for a bit. "Keep this up and we're gonna have all kinds of enemies."

Hakuryuu knew Judal didn't mean disgruntled pool players in dingy pool halls. Time on the road was teaching them that theirs was not the only secret world hidden behind modern conveniences and manicured lawns.

"Even if the Wolg does find us out here," Hakuryuu comforts, "the Nodoroc's going to be a hell of a walk for it to drag us back to. I don't think it's prepared for a three hundred mile road trip with you."

Judal cracks a grin. "I'm a menace."

"You are."

Judal sits up some, craning his neck so he could kiss Hakuryuu. Hakuryuu answers it tenderly, curling his fingers under Judal's head to support him. Judal's lips might be chapped, but his hair is as soft as ever. How does he do it? The deepen the kiss, and both of them let that tenderness drive off the demons lurking in the corners of their minds.

Judal breaks the kiss only so he can pepper Hakuryuu's lips with more quick, feather-light kisses. "We might be in Tennessee," he whispers, "but you're the only ten I see."

Hakuryuu groans a little bit. It's a terrible pun, the kind that should have irrevocably ruined the mood, but instead he finds himself charmed and relieved to hear Judal cracking jokes again. "I guess you should look in a mirror then."

"That's awful."

"So was yours!"

Judal snickers a little at Hakuryuu's offense, then kisses him again. His hands find Hakuryuu's face and hair, caressing and petting and clinging. Hakuryuu inclines his neck, inviting Judal to move his attentions, and Judal obliges with a little snicker. He kisses a line from Hakuryuu's lips to his ear. Hakuryuu murmurs with wordless pleasure at the attention, shuddering under the light and fluttering touches.

"Do you mind if I eat you out?" Hakuryuu says softly.

Judal chuckles as he kisses his way down Hakuryuu's scar from cheek to neck and down to his collarbone. "Do I mind? Why the hell would I?" He nips Hakuryuu's collarbone. "Though you might have to wait until I'm done with you."

"Mmm, I'm holding you to that," Hakuryuu says. "Sometimes you can be inconsistent with what you want. And I would never want to impose."

Judal bites, almost hard enough that the feeling isn't pleasurable, and then sucks on the bite. "I'm a stud."

"Please at least be a careful stud then," Hakuryuu asks gently, curling his hand through Judal's hair.

Judal laughs as he tugs Hakuryuu's shirt up and off him. Despite how hard he bit, Judal has learned how to be a tender lover over their months on the road. His hands are light, dancing down Hakuryuu's chest and across his hips with grace that shows no hint of his early inexpertise. He kisses Hakuryuu more until the pants are off, freeing Hakuryuu for more intense attention.

Somehow Judal even manages to make sucking dick seem like a conversation he's running. Hakuryuu clutches at Judal's hair, guiding Judal faster or slower as Judal works him from soft, slow intimacy to euphoric release. When he's done, he gives Hakuryuu a cheeky grin, all too satisfied with his work.

Unfolding Judal into ecstasy is a trickier task. For as demanding as he is in other aspects of life, Judal is almost reserved in the bedroom. Nerves make him jumpy and oversensitive, and Hakuryuu has a hard time getting him to relax into the touch of his hands and mouth. But he does relax, inch by inch, melting into moans and undulating motions of hip beneath Hakuryuu. The sound and sight are as delicious as the act itself, and by the time Judal comes, Hakuryuu feels like he's feasted on every pleasure known.

Hakuryuu places a kiss on the flat of Judal's stomach before crawling back up the bed to cradle in Judal's arms.

"Don't worry," Judal says, almost asleep. "I'll let you go back to being the worry-wort soon."

"Mmmhmm." Hakuryuu nuzzles Judal as they shift into sleeping positions. "You're right. It's my job to be the responsible one. What will people think if you start taking my good points?"

Judal doesn't respond; he's already fast asleep.

Hakuryuu smiles and makes himself shut his eyes. "Good night, Judal."

* * *

 _LOST DOG_ , the flyer says.

Only those two words, "LOST DOG," gave any clue as to what the photo below is supposed to be. The rest of the flyer is rain-bled to illegibility, and the picture is now an indecipherable gray-scale blob. Had this been a face? A full-body shot? Photographic evidence of some sort of horrific monster that could only be called "dog" in the loosest sense of the word?

Whoever had put the flyer up had slipped the paper into a plastic binder sheet to try and protect it. The dog in question was probably long gone by now. Judal stares at it a long time, scrutinizing the runny gray like it's tea leaves in a cup, and it will give him answers to some unspoken question.

"Judal," Hakuryuu calls from the car. "We should get going. I don't want to sit on the side of the road like this forever."

"Yeah," Judal says, pulling the pushpin out of the flyer and taking it down. "Coming."

* * *

Finding a good tourist trap to stop at proved a little tricky. Hakuryuu didn't want to do Memphis or Nashville because of the crowds, and so they lost out on Graceland and untold other musical glories. Neither of them wanted to do the Jesus-y shit, either- religious fanaticism hits a little too close to home regardless of the god in question. Judal ends up losing a few hours on a public library computer looking for spots online- not the organic way he usually finds things, but it serves.

In the end, they have to backtrack a ways, going back up towards the eastern side of the state to a little town called Sweetwater and a cave attraction worthy of their time. It feels good to be driving without direction again, zig-zagging back and forth without mind to progress. They blare the radio and Judal sings along.

Driving diagonally across Tennessee feels like it takes all day, but around late afternoon they turn off the highway and onto Route 68. Then, about seven miles later, they see the sign on left- The Lost Sea Adventure. Judal grins at Hakuryuu, and Hakuryuu shakes his head, smiling. Somehow it doesn't look how Judal was expecting. He always imagined caves in mountains, but the entrance to the Lost Sea looks like a rest stop got cozy with a decent sized hill. They pay their fare and then descend, down, down into the earth.

Technically it's not a sea, just a subterranean lake, but who cares when the name is that good? Judal certainly doesn't, and the tour guide clears up the misleading name fast enough that Hakuryuu doesn't have too much room to complain. The tour takes them down wide, sweeping pathways, and Judal oggles at stalactites and stalagmites, occasionally taking pictures with his phone. As they walk, the hear stories of the cave- boring geology and stories of its folksie discovery and how it was used to store everything from moonshine to atomic fallout rations.

The tour pauses at a hole lit with red lights, and the guide takes great flourish in telling them about how a group of wiccans once fled the room in terror, claiming there was too much power coming from it. The guide called it "The Devil's Hole."

Hakuryuu glances over at Judal. "Is it really that powerful?" he asks in a doubtful little whisper.

Judal takes a moment to consider, feeling the air and trying to separate the hole itself from the rest of the magical static of belief. "Hmm… It's powerful, to be sure. Not my style but… It's interesting. And the lights, and all these people staring at it and fearing it and telling stories about it?" As they turn down to rejoin the tour, Judal scoffs. "In a couple more decades it'll be something fuckin' scary powerful I'd guess."

Hakuryuu nods, smiling a little. "Maybe some other time then."

The tour takes them down to the deepest depths, and they both stare out over the still expanse of the Lost Sea. There's a boat waiting, the last portion of the tour, and they let the other tour goers on before them, taking a moment to appreciate the water before they clamber in too. Below they can see fish swimming lazily, and the tour guide tells them that no one knows for sure how deep the waters go. Here Judal is quiet, simply drinking in the sight and strangeness and power of the place.

When the tour is done they eat dinner at the little cafe across the parking lot. Judal frowns a little, disappointed to see that the decor doesn't match his ideas of what a "Cavern Kitchen" should look like, and they eat okay sandwiches while the bored teens behind the counter chat amongst themselves about homework and school and life.

Afterwards, they use the last bit of daytime browse the general store until the employees warn they're closing soon, and then pile back into the car.

"You want to find a motel?" Judal asks, cocking his head to the side.

Hakuryuu shakes his head. "No, I think I can drive through the night."

Judal kisses Hakuryuu's hand with a grin and kicks his feet up on the dash. "If you're sure! I've been feeling antsy from being in this state too long anyway, so I'm good to keep going too."

Hakuryuu pulls the car out of the parking lot and back onto the state highway while Judal starts up the radio for the long night ahead.

* * *

In the Old Days, the Wolg never had to follow prey this far. The road is hard on its paws over such great distance, hot and unforgiving against the pads of its feet. People were easier to scare then, and wickedness moved at a slower pace. Now it can't go a day without having the pull of other prey distract it from the boy who tried to rewrite the Nodoroc.

The Wolg forces itself ever onward, ignoring these other evils. So far from home. So hungry.

It loses the scent more than once, the chaotic path its prey weaves twisting the Wolg's tongue up in knots as it tries to understand how to follow.

But it will follow. And it will find them.

Whizz-thump.

The Wolg does not forget slights.


	6. Lost Souls like Lost Pets, part 2

Judal lies on his side, listening as the fan kicks on in the window A/C unit of their motel room. It wheezes like a dying thing, and pairs well with the mildly asthmatic whistle of Hakuryuu's breath. Night sounds.

Someone who had been in the room before them- maybe an employee, maybe another tenant- had tied ribbon to the vents on the A/C unit, and now Judal watches as it wriggles in the artificial breeze. For all the peace, he feels uneasy. Judal slips from the bed, padding over to stare out the window. No sign of pursuers, and nothing worth staring at. Judal shivers- from cold, not nerves- and realizes that he left his hoodie in the car.

He creeps back over to the bed, kissing Hakuryuu on the forehead as he takes the keys.

"Don't drive anywhere," Hakuryuu mumbles, half asleep. "You don't have your license."

"I'm just getting my hoodie," Judal assures him, but Hakuryuu has already fallen back asleep. Judal snorts a little laugh and fondly tostles Hakuryuu's hair before slipping outside.

The hoodie is right where Judal remembers it, but when he picks it up a crumpled paper tumbles from his pocket. Judal frowns, bending down to pick it up. The words Lost Dog answer his question. Judal's frown deepens, and instead of going back to bed, he sits down in the passenger seat.

A lot of lost pets never make it home. That's just how it goes. They die, or go feral, or find new homes, or, fuck, shoot pool and smoke cigars in Don Bluth movies or something. This dog, whatever it looked like, was probably no exception.

When they were kids, Judal and Hakuryuu had a falling out. It was over a lot of things- some petty, most not- but the thing that kept Judal from ever genuinely trying to patch things up before this was… Well, a lot of things. But right now, in this moment, the slight that seems the worst is what Hakuryuu called Judal.

"You're just a dog of Al Tharman's" he'd said. "So why don't you go back to kissing my mother's ass and acting like a lunatic instead of pretending to be my friend."

The funny thing was that then, at what? Fourteen? Twelve? Sixteen? The funny thing was that the worst part had been the insinuation that Judal was obedient. That he mindlessly did as he was told. That someone, anyone, could make him do something. Judal had felt invincible back then.

Judal traces a finger over the flyer's mottled surface, smirking to imagine it about himself. Lost dog. Black hair, red eyes. Aggressive with strangers, children, family. Answers to Judal, and also to Asshole, and also to the creepy pet names you give kids groomed into magical murder machines. Big cash dollar reward.

Judal's a lost dog who'd rather die than go home, and it makes him smile a little. Most lost pets don't make their way home. And honestly…

"Fuck," Judal says to interrupt his own thoughts. "When did I turn into such a sap?"

Honestly, he was one of those dogs that found better homes by running away. This car, this life, Hakuryuu? It might shaky and transient, but it was his, damn it! His home he found, all on his own. Him and Hakuryuu, two lost souls in a lost land, gettin' lost on back roads together and finding their way again. No sad, forgotten flyer needed. But it did get him thinking.

Judal finds gel pens in the glovebox, and the light of the parking lot streetlamps is enough to work by. He thinks of the Nodoroc, of another terrible thing with red eyes prowling through the night. Metallic gel pens are a kind of magic, or, at least, they're fucking sparkly as shit, and that's basically as good.

Judal snorts, thinking of mages who slave over spells in secret places and guarded wells of power. A real pro can whip up some reality warping whenever, wherever- even, or perhaps especially, if the when is the asscrack of the morning and the where is in a parking lot in the middle of nowhere.

* * *

There has never been a "normal" to their lives. The commonplace and everyday of the way they lived in Al Tharman's remote compound is mundanely monstrous when compared to the outside world, and their life on the road is long and distant and lonesome when held against living in just one place. But Judal and Hakuryuu are survivors. They adapt, continuing to live and spit and thrive even when they shouldn't. They are unkillable apartment cockroaches and tenacious desert plants, each with their own adapted skill set for survival.

At a rest stop on the state line, Judal howls with commiserative fury as a truck driver tells him that Tennessee made all the porn stores shut down their theatres and video booths. It's a travesty, he agrees, and good riddance that they're leaving this bullshit state behind. Hakuryuu marvels how Judal, who has killed so many people in cold blood and claims nothing but distaste for those who he hasn't yet killed, can slot back in with them so easily.

The man laughs when Judal offers to trade him magic for gas, but he doesn't say no. They leave with a full tank, and the trucker leaves with a hula girl dashboard ornament that will ensure he gets lucky the next time he tries to hook up with someone. It's real, tacky magic, and Hakuryuu tries not to be antsy that Judal has become more loose with using his gifts.

Hakuryuu's own misanthropy isn't so easily misplaced, but he does have one soft spot. When they cross over the border, he pulls off without prompting when he sees a sign advertising an open-air flea market. The look of wonder on Judal's face as he drinks in the sight of local crafts and vintage signs and absolute garbage tchotchkes brings a small smile to Hakuryuu's lips. The rest of everything is worth it when he sees Judal happy.

They buy some fresh produce from a local farmer and munch on it as they wander the aisles, Judal surprisingly discerning as he tries to pick what might be worth his money. In the end he surprises Hakuryuu, holding out a tasteful wallet clip to him.

"Thought you might like it," he says, and Hakuryuu agrees that yes, he thinks he does.

* * *

On long, dark stretches of night, when the mind is wild but the body is sore, Walmart is as good as any fancy bed and breakfast.

Judal cackles as they explore the aisles, dodging weird looks from tired stock workers and cooing over random mass-market bullshit. Hakuryuu follows behind, physically tired but needing to stretch his legs. There's something calming about the sameness of Walmart. The off white tile. The same songs. The faint whine of the lights. At least Judal seems happier the last few days- oh, wait never mind.

Hakuryuu smacks Judal's hand away from something, seeing the glint of mischief in his eye.

"Don't steal," he says. "I don't want to have to bail you out of jail for shoplifting shit you don't even want from a Walmart."

"What if I shoplift something I do want?" Judal counters. "They had a pretty decent selection of drugstore makeup, and I've heard good things about-"

"The answer is still no." Hakuryuu's tone is final. "Why don't we go look at the books? Sometimes you find trashy urban fantasies you like."

Judal follows along after Hakuryuu. "We should get another book on tape. That was really fun while it lasted."

Hakuryuu smiles. "That does sound like a good idea."

Walmart doesn't have books on tape that appeal, but they get a couple trashy paperbacks that look fun enough. Judal has too much fun inflicting bad romance summaries on Hakuryuu, and so eventually Hakuryuu drags him away to grab more snacks for the car. They split, foolishly, in the cosmetics section, where Hakuryuu goes to get more dry shampoo and pretend that Judal won't steal makeup while he isn't looking.

Hakuryuu's make believe is almost right. Judal doesn't steal any makeup. Instead, he slips away to the pet section, pocketing the biggest dog collar he can find before rushing back to the makeup to pretend to stare at foundations when Hakuryuu comes to collect him. They check out with Hakuryuu none the wiser, and load their purchases into the back seat.

Their minds and legs satisfied, they decide to sleep there for a few hours before they return to the road.

* * *

Untold travel changes people.

The Wolg is not a People, but it too feels the wear of the road, so far from the Nodoroc. It can scarcely remember the sulfurous bog-smell of its home, can barely recall the feeling of rest. It feels thin, its magic stretched out and worn from distance.

A parking lot is not the an epic field of battle, but it is where it finds its prey, sleeping with foolish soundness. It grins, revealing teeth and gums discolored from dryness, and it thinks of what it will be like to sink its teeth into its prey and drag it back home. Failing that, its stretched-thin magic will snap, and the Wolg will know the restfulness of death.

One way or another, it will be over soon.

* * *

Judal wakes to the squeal of tires as the car lurches out of their parking spot.

"What? Huh? Where?" He blinks sleep from his eyes, raking his hands through his hair and gaping dumbly at Hakuryuu.

Hakuryuu's jaw is set as he speeds from the parking lot. Judal frowns.

"Hakuryuu what the fuck. You scared the shit outta me!" And yet still he does not reply. Judal feels a creeping dread he can't quite place. "Hakuryuu!"

"It was the Wolg," Hakuryuu hisses, as quiet as if he's afraid of being heard.

Judal stares at Hakuryuu, studying his face as they speed away, the way he twinges at running a red light or grinds his teeth when they pass speed limit signs too fast to read them. Hakuryuu had never wanted to run like this. Judal knows he changed that.

"Stop the car," Judal says.

Hakuryuu glances over at him like he's lost his mind. "Judal, whatever you're planning, now is not the time."

Judal, however, is undeterred, already reaching to unbuckle his seatbelt. "Stop the car, or I'm going to jump out while it's still moving."

"Judal!"

The seatbelt clicks open, and Judal reaches for the door. No. They're going too fast. Hakuryuu accidentally wrenches the wheel as he tries to snap Judal's seatbelt back in. Judal tries to- he's not sure what. Hakuryuu's foot hits the brake before he can be sure, and the car squeals and spins out onto the dirt shoulder and into the grass. Judal is thrown into the front console, but the seatbelt catches and he goes not further than that. The car goes still there in a field.

They slowly open their eyes to to the realization that neither is dead or maimed.

"Don't." Hakuryuu spits. "Do. That."

Judal pants a little from the nerves and squirrels back out of his seatbelt. "If you'd just stopped the car-"

"I'm not going to stop the car so you can almost get eaten by some demonic dog thing again!" Hakuryuu hates how hot his face and eyes feel, but he has to keep going. "You might be suicidally reckless, but I'm not going to let you hurt yourself over something we could just avoid-"

"Oh, so you're just going to keep running?" Judal snorts, dismissive. "When did you turn into Hakuei?"

That makes Hakuryuu's tears start to fall. "Don't bring my sister up to turn this into a fight."

"I know you didn't want to spend the rest of your life running," Judal snarls back. He doesn't want to make it a fight, either, but he can't take the barbs out of his voice. "I'm the reason you have to keep running. The least I can do is take care of this and-"

"I let you stick around because I love you!" Hakuryuu wipes at his face, but the tears won't stop falling. "I could have ditched you any time, but I liked having you around. I love you, and I wouldn't give up your companionship for some… some delusion that I'd be safe if I did!"

"I…" Judal lets go of the door. "I love you, too."

Hakuryuu sniffles, rubbing his eyes again. "I know." He hates crying. It makes him feel like a child, and he's nowhere near a child anymore.

Judal reaches over and gently flicks Hakuryuu in the forehead to make him look up. When their eyes meet, Judal gives him an unsure little smirk, and Hakuryuu laughs. Outside, the whizz-thump of the Wolg's tail grows louder and louder.

"I can do this," Judal assures him. "Trust me. Cuz you love me. And I'm awesome."

Hakuryuu laughs a little more. "What are you going to do?"

Judal's smirk widens, more confident and true. "I've gotten too good at making enemies. It's boring now. I think it's high time I learned how to make some friends instead."

Whizz-thump. Whizz-thump.

Hakuryuu shakes his head. "You're such a dork."

Judal winks and pulls out a folded piece of paper. "No way. I am an absolute badass."

Hakuryuu kisses him on the lips. "Be safe?"

Judal nods and opens the car door.

The Wolg is smaller than Judal's nightmares remembered it. It snarls at the sight of him, showing off dry gums and yellowed fangs. The glowing coals of its eyes are tired and vicious, a mirror of his own. He a lot of himself in this thing, so, so far from home.

Judal unfolds the lost dog flyer, scribbled over with gel pen sigils. If you squint, the nasty smear of a picture could almost be the Wolg. "Come here boy. Here boy."

The Wolg snarls, lunging at Judal. Judal dances aside, and it crashes into the car, leaving a nasty dent in the rear passenger door.

Judal scowls. "Bad dog! Don't snap at people!" The marks on the flyer begin to clow. "Come here, boy. Good boy. Come here."

The Wolg growls, but doesn't budge. Magic grows thick in the air, and Judal pulls the collar he stole from Walmart out with his other hand. Tools and focuses make it easier to shape molten reality without getting burned.

"You're tired, aren'tcha buddy. Tired and lost. Not a bad dog, just a scared one." Judal whistles, and the Wolg quirks its head at the sound. "Come here boy, good boy, who's a pretty puppy?"

The Wolg quirks its head the other way, its tail whizzing around in a circle. Hakuryuu wouldn't call this monster, with its uneven legs and too-long snake's tongue, a "pretty puppy," but the more Judal talks magic around it, the more ugly-cute and docile the Wolg looks. It makes a low, warbling noise, and Judal coos and calls it again.

"Come here boy! Come here." Judal slaps his thighs, his voice taking on the sing-song tone reserved for pets and babies, and the Wolg responds by bouncing down into a playful dog bow. Judal bounces from to one side, then to the other, and the Wolg follows with its head, tail wagging excitedly. "Come here, good boy!"

The Wolg bounds for Judal, jubilantly jumping up on his chest. It almost bowls him over, and Judal has to push it down.

"Okay, okay, no jumping, there you go, good boy." The hardest part of getting the collar on the Wolg is avoiding getting excited dog kisses all over his hands. Judal looks up at Hakuryuu with a big dumb grin, and Hakuryuu gapes back. "So we can keep him, right?"

* * *

The air is cool and refreshing as they drive down the highway, the Wolg's head lolling out the window so its bifurcated tongue can pant in the breeze. Hakuryuu finds himself smiling as well, and if he were the humming sort, he probably would have hummed a happy tune as they drove.

"Are we going to have to struggle with finding pet-friendly hotels now?" he asks Judal.

"Mmm, maybe." Judal reaches into the back seat to scratch the Wolg. It felt softer now, and with every day it looks less like a horrid monster and more like a particularly ugly mutt. "But I mean, this guy's survived out and about on his own before, I doubt he'd mind having to chill in the car or out in the woods while we sleep."

Hakuryuu grunts in reply, not sure he wants to leave the Wolg unsupervised (and a little sad at the thought that they might have to leave it outside.)

"We should name him," Judal continues. "Get him some dog tags. That way if we do have to leave him outside, people will know he's ours."

"Ah yes, I would love for everyone to know that we own a massive hell-beast," Hakuryuu teases, but Judal just laughs it off, flipping through his phone for the nearest pet store with a tag cutting machine.

The summer's fever had broken, and the seasons changed to fall. The leaves along the winding mountain path were turning, and soon they would fall like brilliant rain. For now the road was their home. But bit by bit, maybe, that was changing too.


End file.
